In prior art, numerous types of escape ladders are described allowing escape from the upper floors of a building when the normal escape routes are not accessible.
These ladders must be available when needed, made to easily convert from their storage arrangement into their operational position allowing escape means leading from one of the upper floors to the ground.
Security
For security purposes, the escape ladders must allow exit during an emergency, however, these must not allow access into the building when in their storage position. This would be a breach of security.
Therefore they are typically stored in a non-useable arrangement, but are allowed to be converted into a useable arrangement when needed.
These escape devices fall into the categories of rope ladders, telescoping ladders, unfolding ladders stored in a location near a door or window. There are also ladders that are bolted to the walls which have an extendable lower section that may be rope, unfolding or telescoping type ladders.
These ladders typically are stored in boxes or containers on an upper floor, then thrown down, or extended to the ground when needed.
Storage Locations
Due to their required size, escape ladders on higher floors are larger and require more storage space. These require a large box, which may become bulky and block the door or window, and not be aesthetically pleasing.
Must Be Always Available
In order to allow better access to a window or door, people may tamper with, or remove the escape device. This may render the device unusable. An unusable escape device does the residents no good.
Aesthetics
Other prior art designs have placed escape devices in a window sill, above the window in an enlarged frame, or tucked underneath on a platform that has been added to the building. These tend not to be very aesthetically pleasing.
These may be removed, tampered with, or altered to make them more aesthetically pleasing, and inadvertently disable them. This again results in a system that is not ready for use in an emergency situation.
There have been some attempts to design the tamper-resistant escape devices. One such device has the ladder folded into a single strip which attaches to the building wall. It looks like decoration of the building in its storage position, and also has the ability to be locked in its storage position with a lock. This will keep the building secure and will prevent tampering; however, if there is an emergency, and the residents do not have access to the key, or combination for the lock, the results may be disastrous.
Blend Into Scenery
An attempt was made to devise such an escape ladder which uses a wall decoration that has slats that pivot into a ladder. This is attached to a wall at ground level, is one section long with no means of being extended. The escape device is intended to blend into the scenery and is less likely to be a target of tampering.
However, it is intended to be placed low to the ground allowing access to the house in its storage position. This would be a breach of security. It also does not extend far enough to be of use in multi-story buildings.
Redundancy
Many of the prior art escape devices are designed without consideration to use on multiple floor buildings. These are typically designed to extend from their storage location, continuously to the ground. Take, for example, a rope ladder stored in a box on the third floor of a 7 floor building. For this to be useful, it must extend from the third floor to the ground. The same is true for on 2nd, 4th, 5th, 6th, and 7th floors. Therefore, when all are in use, there will be 6 ladders between the 1st and 2nd floors, 5 between the 2nd and the 3rd floors, 4 between the 3rd and 4th floors, etc. This redundancy leads to larger escape devices that partially block windows and doors, and are not aesthetically pleasing.
Currently there is a need for an escape ladder that does not allow access when not in use, is always available, does not take up excess of space in the building, is aesthetically pleasing, and is readily available for use.